Titania is a well-known material, which is often used as catalyst carrier or catalyst in various processes. It should be noted that the titania-containing catalyst systems described in the art are invariably based on titania powder, which does not make such systems directly suitable for industrial applications. In order to bring titania into an industrially more appropriate form it has been recently described in DE-C-3217751 to produce titania pellets by pelletising pyrogenically manufactured titania using a certain class of pelletising agents such as polyvalent alkanols and, in particular, graphite in powder form.
Thusfar, it has not been possible to extrude titania like other carriers such as alumina in conventional extrusion equipment to give reasonably strong products. Since titania is an interesting carrier material, especially in the absence of binder material, it was considered important to investigate whether this notoriously difficult to shape material could be subjected to an extrusion process to obtain titania extrudates of sufficient strength to be of industrial importance.
It has now been found that titania extrudates can be suitably prepared when use is made of an alkanolamine or ammonia or an ammonia-releasing compound in the preparation of a dough from which titania extrudates can be obtained.